Jefferson as President: Domestic Issues
Jefferson in Office
As President, Jefferson believed strongly that the primary functions of government were to: 1. Protect
the nation from foreign threats 2. Deliver the mail, AND 3. Collect taxes on imports or exports.
Jefferson hit the ground running with his attempts to put his republican ideas into practice. He urged the
newly won Democratic-Republican controlled Congress to allow the Alien and Sedition Acts to expire.
Jefferson then lowered military spending and reduced the size of the U.S. Army, reduced the number of
Navy ships, and urged newly appointed Secretary of Treasury Albert Gallatin to find ways to get rid of
domestic taxes.
Judicial Review - Marbury v. Madison
Although the Democratic-Republican party controlled both the executive and legislative branches of
government, the Federalist party still controlled the federal judiciary. In an attempt to continue to
control the federal judiciary, in the final days and hours of his presidency, John Adams passed the
Judiciary Act of 1801, which restructured the judicial branch. Part of this act created several new judges
who would be picked by Adams. Adams selected the judges and his Secretary of State, John Marshall,
filled out the important papers for the judges. When the judges received their papers, they could begin
the new position. These judges are known as the midnight judges because Adams picked them at the
last minute. John Marshall did not get all of the papers delivered to the new judges but he figured James
Madison, the next Secretary of State, would finish the job. When Jefferson took office, he told Madison
not to finish delivering the papers. Jefferson did not want more judges, especially from the Federalist
party.
William Marbury was one of the judges that did not receive his paperwork. Without the papers in hand,
Marbury could not officially take his job as judge. Marbury felt he was being treated unfairly, and took
his case to the Supreme Court. In the case of Marbury v. Madison, William Marbury sued James Madison
for not delivering the paperwork to make him a judge. He hoped the court would make Madison hand
over the papers.
Strangely enough, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was none other than John Marshall. Chief
Justice Marshall used the case of Marbury v. Madison (1803) to declare the court’s power of Judicial
Review. Marshall explained that the Judicial Act of 1789, which spelled out how the paperwork for
judges should be handled, was unconstitutional. It gave the Supreme Court power which was denied to
it in Article III of the Constitution. This was the first time that the Supreme Court struck down a law
passed by Congress. The power of the Supreme Court to declare a law unconstitutional is known as
judicial review.
In summary, the Marbury v. Madison case was important for several reasons. First, it reinforced the
Court’s power of judicial review; in doing so, the Court was established as the final authority on the
Constitution. For the first time in the new nation’s short history, the judicial branch of government was
equal to the other two branches.